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EPA REQUESTS FEEDBACK ON DRAFT FUNGICIDE STRATEGY
May 5, 2026
BrownfieldAgNews reports:
The U.S. EPA is taking feedback on a draft fungicide strategy that it says strives to preserve farmers' access to crop protection tools.
The draft fungicide strategy, released on Friday, builds on the agency's final herbicide and insecticide strategies. EPA says this strategy focuses more on structured mitigation for direct impacts to vertebrates like the Indiana Bat and whooping crane in the Midwest.
The strategy relies on Pesticide Use Limitation Areas (PULAs), targeted maps that determine where mitigation is required. The EPA says fungicide mitigation might not be needed everywhere as fungicide use is expected to be greater in certain regions of the United States, including the Delta, Great Lakes and southeast. It also uses a flexible, but mandatory mitigation points system to let farmers choose from approved practices to meet environmental requirements.
The EPA says the goal is to protect listed species, streamline Endangered Species Act consultations, and improve regulatory certainty for pesticide users.
The EPA will have a webinar to publicly review the strategy on May 20.
A 60-day public comment period is open through June 29, and the agency is expected to finalize the strategy by November. Submit public comments.
The EPA now has two finalized and two draft pesticide strategies under the Endangered Species Act, following a court ruling that requires federal pesticide decisions to comply with ESA protections.
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